1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to earthquake engineering and more particularly to a seismic coupler for securing to a reinforcing bar of a column or beam of reinforced concrete with improved seismic performance.
2. Description of Related Art
For enhancing a building's seismic performance, a great variety of structural elements are developed. For example, typical damping mechanical couplers are installed in columns of a building. However, ability of withstanding heavy vertical load of the typical damping mechanical couplers is poor due to low tenacity.
Also, typical plastic mechanical couplers are installed in beams of a building for decreasing lateral displacement in the event of earthquake. However, ability of dispersing the shear wave energy between a wide range of frequencies of the typical plastic mechanical couplers is poor due to low plasticity.
Thus, the need of for enhancing the tenacity of columns and plasticity of beams of a building structure so as to survive an earthquake still exists.